Recommendations for implementing school-based management and shared decision making are presented in this educational policy bulletin. Based on a literature review and reported experiences of educational practitioners, four recommendations include: transformation of authority at district and school site levels; development of a systemwide…

An overview of school-based management (SBM) and the issues involved are provided in this document. Information is offered on the following topics: the advantages and liabilities of SBM; its effect on the roles of the school board, superintendent, and district office; decision-making processes; elements of SBM implementation; examples of three…

Site-based management (SBM) gives teachers, principals, and communities a method for directly affecting and improving their schools. This newsletter describes some of the advantages of SBM, which can result in greater accountability for student learning and an increased opportunity for parents, teachers, students, and business. The greatest…

The purpose of this Bulletin is to clarify the intent of shared decision making (SDM) and explore its benefits, drawbacks, and implementation. It looks at how the principal's role changes in SDM, stresses the need for training, examines conditions that affect successful implementation of SDM, and offers ideas on how schools can concentrate on…

The Chicago experience in school governance restructuring is examined in this newsletter. The introduction distinguishes between school-based management and shared decision-making and provides an overview of Chicago's restructured school governance. Next, findings of a study that examined school governance in 12 diverse Chicago elementary schools…

This publication summarizes research that investigated how school-based management (SBM) can be implemented for long-term school improvement. It is argued that a successful SBM plan must be part of a quest for improvement and utilize a "high involvement" model. In addition to having more power, schools need knowledge of the organization,…

After describing the nature, promise, and reality of school-based management, this document discusses delegation of authority to the school site and distribution of authority among site participants as critical issues in the implementation of school-based management and reviews the importance and benefits of shared decision making. Eight major…

Now that there are enough school-restructuring experiments to evaluate, one can examine what has been learned about transforming the restructuring concept into reality. Although principals recognize that restructuring will reshape their leadership role, studies show these administrators are pivotal to school-improvement efforts. Fred Newmann…

This publication features sixteen articles that focus on the theme of collaborative decision making. The articles are concerned with: 1) effects of the lack of collaboration; 2) the trust, distrust, and political reasons behind collaboration; 3) collaboration as a critical democratic process; 4) mandated public school and community cooperation;…